Abstract

Piezoelectrictemperaturestabilities are often a critical issue for many piezoelectric materials in practical applications. We report an important physical phenomenon recently discovered in a variety of -based ceramics.Piezoelectricproperties are extremely temperature-stable in orthorhombic phase. No or only weak piezoelectrictemperature dependence and excellent thermal aging stability are observed over considerably wide temperature intervals, which are broader than in ceramic and in ceramic, respectively. In general, the orthorhombic phase possesses much better piezoelectrictemperaturestabilities than the tetragonal phase. Thus, we suggest that future compositional designs of -based lead-free piezoelectricceramics should take this phenomenon into full consideration.

Received 07 December 2009Accepted 20 February 2010Published online 07 April 2010

Acknowledgments:

This work was financially supported by the Program of Ministry of Education for New Century Excellent Talents in University under Grant No. NCET-06-0587 and the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education under Grant No. 20090131110015.